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Google’s return-to-office push reportedly has a $99 hotel for workers
- ggm 3y agoInsanely silly headline, the building cannot be a surprise or news the planning burdens in CA are non trivial and Google employs enough people it makes sense. What's the enticement? $99. So it's a $99 hotel room which the company gets.. from payroll. I doubt it recoups profit but probably a tax side means the capex and opex to run the joint isn't a complete loss. I expect in due course to see Googlers release news of the tailgate stupidities and the set of house rules which get creatively ignored and modified
- iamevn 3y agoI think I've stayed there while visiting the Mountain View offices for training. They were nice accomodations but felt a bit strange to be in a hotel operated by my employer. I got to expense it then but I doubt people staying there for RTO will get the chance.
- andrewstuart 3y agoSounds kinda expensive.
- uxp100 3y agoWhen I was regularly traveling to the Bay Area for work my typical accommodations were like $180. However, when I was paying for it from my own pocket and had less money, there were some spots on El Camino Real in Santa Clara that were $59 or $69, run down a bit, but clean. And pretty good donuts for breakfast. So I think for the typical work traveler this will feel like a discount, but I agree it’s not a great deal. Of course, my experience is 5-10 years old, so…
- thebackup 3y agoI don’t work for Google and have no insight in what the average Google job pays, but $99 per day is basically my entire salary (after taxes etc.).
- kuchenbecker 3y ago3k per month (36k/yr) is very cheap bay area area housing.
- thebackup 3y agoI see, wow. Thanks for the info.
- JauntTrooper 3y agoThat's about $3,000 a month, which is a little cheaper than an average apartment in Mountain View.
- spaniard89277 3y agoCompanies, specially this ones with so much profit and high salaries, will eventually have to accept that there's no way around housing and politics. It doesn't matter what you do. If moving to your place feels miserable you'll have churn. Maybe Google can deal with this with some gymnastics for a while but if people around google employees keep getting poorer and more miserable, life for googlers will be miserable too, doesn't matter how many perks and colors their campus has. I guess FAANG will eventually try to silo people in their campuses with their own housing, but either way it affects the bottom line of the economy, so you'll be affected in many ways. Housing is not just another problem. Georgists, Piketty & critics, etc. It will tank the west (and particularly europe).
- brudgers 3y agoThe market will never produce below market rate housing. If you want below market rate housing, it has to be subsidized. As is the case here...try to find a $99/night rack rate hotel room in Mountain View. Here, Google is subsidizing well paid workers, not ordinary working poor or even low wage employees of its cleaning contractors.
- ethanbond 3y agoWeird sleight of hand. You can obviously lower the market rate by increasing supply. Subsidies on the other hand increase the market rate, below which, correct, you will not get much construction.
- brudgers 3y agoWhen market rates drop, new market rate housing projects stall and die. They stall and die more quickly than they start as market rates rise. Because investment syndicates fall apart as anticipated rates of return fall, because bank loans are harder to come by, and because existing revenue streams shrink available funding. Real estate economics is very unlike widget economics. The amount of land in desirable locations is fixed.
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- voxadam 3y agoThis sounds eerily similar to a company town.[0] What's next, company scrip?[1] > You load 16 tons, what do you get? > Another day older and deeper in debt > St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go > I owe my soul to the company store —Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis[2] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteen_Tons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteen_Tons Note: Yes, I'm aware scrip was outlawed in the US long ago but I suppose that's what lobbying is for.
- appleflaxen 3y agoThis approach seems incredibly out of touch.
- donutshop 3y agoInspired by prisons, funded by capitalism.
- euroderf 3y agoAt night, subliminal messages piped in.
- esel2k 3y agoAs someone who did work for companies that were too far and it didn’t want to move and so I paid for my own hotel room. After 1 I was so sad, depressed of going alone to my hotel that I quit. There is just no money in the world that will replace personal connections (for me my wife and kids). So either housing goes down or work somewhere else - full stop.